STANDARD ENFORCEMENT LEGISLATIVE FACT SHEET

Standard enforcement laws for adults have a lifesaving impact on children - and on our future. Passing strong standard enforcement laws protect lives, reduce injuries, and can save our communities millions of dollars. This change in the vehicle code is the single greatest step legislators can take to save lives in Illinois. Click here for supporting points.

Passing Standard Enforcement Laws Should Be A Priority

• Adults who don't buckle up often don't buckle children. In Illinois, when the adult is buckled, 71% of the time the child is buckled. When the adult is unbuckled the chances that the child is buckled plummets to 28%.
  
  

• Despite terrible traffic problems such as aggressive driving, increased seat belt use is still the single most effective thing we can do to save lives and reduce injuries on America's roadways.
  
  

• Seat belts are the most effective safety devices in vehicles today. They are estimated to save the lives of 316 people in Illinois each year. Yet only 67 percent of the motor vehicle occupants are buckled.
  
  

• The NHTSA estimates that if 90 percent of Illinois drivers buckled up, we will prevent more than 210 deaths and 6,816 injuries annually.
  
  

• Some people have voiced their concern that standard enforcement seat belt laws will lead to potential police harassment. But, over a 13 year period, there have been no reports of harassment as a result of the law from any of the states that have standard belt laws.
  
  

• Every 6 hours someone dies in an automobile crash in Illinois.
  
  

• Failure to buckle up contributes to more fatalities than any other single traffic safety-related behavior.
  
  

• The cost of unbuckled drivers and passengers goes beyond those killed and the loss to their families. We all pay for those who don't buckle up - in higher taxes, higher health care and higher insurance costs. The NHTSA pegs the annual savings achievable with 90% belt use at $445 million more than the current levels.
  
  

• On average, inpatient hospital care costs for an unbelted crash victim are 50 percent higher than those for a belted crash victim. Society bears 85 percent of those costs, not the individuals involved. Every American pays about $580 a year toward the cost of crashes. If everyone buckled up, this figure would drop significantly.